After six years as St. Lucie County property appraiser, Ken Pruitt -- longtime Treasure Coast legislator and former president of the Florida Senate -- has ended his re-election campaign and will not seek the Property Appraiser's Office in 2016.
"I love my professional staff and this county with all my heart," Republican Pruitt told me Friday. "Bowing out isn't something I do lightly -- it comes after a lot of soul searching and with a very heavy heart."
Pruitt said he crunched the numbers "a dozen different ways" and "did everything a candidate needs to do to wage a viable campaign." But he ultimately realized that winning against a Democrat in St. Lucie County this year would require a "win at all cost," scorched-earth type of campaign.
"This is something I never did in all my years campaigning for the Legislature," he reminded me, "and I refuse to start now."
Pruitt said he's been campaigning long enough to know it would be a real struggle for a Republican constitutional office holder to win in St. Lucie County during a presidential election cycle where Democrats outnumber the GOP by more than 17,000 registered voters. President Obama carried St. Lucie County in dominant fashion the two previous election cycles. And he remembered how that Democratic advantage lifted Patrick Murphy to victory as a congressman four years earlier in what was a Republican congressional district.
If this were an off-presidential year, when Republican turnout generally eclipses Democratic turnout, it would be a different story, he said.
"At the first of the year, my heart told me to go for it," he said. "I've always been driven by a strong passion for public service and I was encouraged by supporters. So, I turned my back on the numbers."
Pruitt opened his 2016 campaign account April 26 with $50,000. He received the endorsement of the AFL-CIO, leading arm of organized labor -- a rare prize for a Florida Republican. The Professional Firefighters and Paramedics of St. Lucie County and the Port St. Lucie Police Officers Association soon followed.
Said Pruitt, "I'm heartsick about disappointing those who stood tall for me over the past few weeks. I hope they will forgive me for letting them down."
The fact is, Pruitt has been on the receiving end of numerous smear campaigns during his 25-year career. I know. I was around for virtually all of them. So, I can understand how he came to his decision. The Democrat challenging for the job, bee advocate Adam Locke, has what other St. Lucie Republicans tell me is a vendetta against Pruitt and his office for questioning the way he assesses property; but Locke also has children -- and Pruitt remembers well the impact previous negative campaigns against him had on his own family.
Over the years, when I've asked why he didn't take more aggressive actions against his political foes, why he wasn't prepared to "get ruthless," he's told me, "I can't, it goes against everything I stand for and how I live my life."
I know Pruitt also worries that if Locke won after a slam-in-the-mud-style campaign, Locke would come in behind him and dismantle the award-winning office he spent the last six years building.
In 2014, the office with its 70-member professional staff won the Distinguished Assessment Jurisdiction Award, given to only one office out of 7,000 in the world. This year the office is vying for the prestigious Certificate of Excellence in Assessment Administration, presented to only a handful of assessing offices in the nation.
And for the last four consecutive years the office has received the “Best Places to Work” recognition from the St. Lucie County Human Resources Association.
Pruitt was first elected to the property appraiser's job in November 2010 following the death of then-Property Appraiser Jeff Furst. He was reelected without opposition to a four-year term two years later.
Before all this he had a long and distinguished career in the Florida Legislature, representing portions of Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties in the Senate from 2000 to 2009, including two years as Senate president; before that, from 1990-2000 he was a member of the Florida House of Representatives. He has a laundry list of accomplishments during those years, not the least of which was the creation of the Bright Futures Scholarship program in 1997.
During 2013 and 2014, editors of Treasure Coast Newspapers, the local newspaper, launched a multi-year-long attempt to humiliate and discredit Pruitt, without question the most accomplished state lawmaker on the Treasure Coast in the last 50 years, by running the daily "Pruitt Meter" -- a mug shot of him at the top of the Opinion Page, with a number that counted the days he refused to discuss whether he would keep his "lucrative lobbying business" or give it up and be a full-time county property appraiser. Pruitt's decision to take on a sugar client was at the heart of the campaign. The newspaper's campaign elicited little response from residents. About the time his office won the Distinguished Assessment Jurisdiction Award, the paper dismantled its official campaign.
Pruitt kept his cool throughout, never rose to the bait. I never once remember him cowering because of the coverage. "I wasn't doing anything unethical or illegal and I don't remember our office getting any more than two letters from residents," he told me. "Citizens are only interested in results, that we're helpful and do a timely, fair, transparent, mistake-free job. I'm so proud of our professional staff, because they're the best at all of those things."
Ken Pruitt won’t be the St. Lucie County property appraiser after this year, and, frankly, that’s a crying shame. He truly loved the job, loves public service, and the facts show he was very good at it. I don't believe it can ever be good for any part of the Treasure Coast to say goodbye to a public servant who has done as much to elevate the region in Tallahassee and make lives better for his constituents as Ken Pruitt has.
But I am prejudiced on his behalf, and I admit it.
After all these years, I know Pruitt's DNA as if I can see it through a microscope. And I believe the real reason he's leaving his heart on the battlefield and walking away is because he wants to open the door for other viable candidates. He's hoping that will ensure a continuation of the good work he and his professional staff have accomplished.
On the other hand, for Pruitt personally, there's a two-fold silver lining to this cloud. First, his lobbying group will be able to accept clients he turned down because of a perceived conflict of interest with the St. Lucie County job; but more important, he will finally realize a joy he's been waiting for -- the opportunity to spend more time, real quality time, with his four children and his "bride" Aileen.
On Sunday none of this will be on his mind. May 22 is his and Aileen's 34th wedding anniversary. "Everything else pales in comparison," he says.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
